Reviewed by the Penny Time editorial team

Part of our Allowance hub.

What Happened to GoHenry? It Is Now Acorns Early

If you went looking for GoHenry recently and landed on something called Acorns Early, you are not confused. GoHenry was acquired by Acorns in April 2023, and in 2024 the GoHenry brand in the US was folded into a product called Acorns Early. The card, the app, and the name all changed. Here is what actually happened, what is different, and whether the paid plan still makes sense once you compare it against free options.

The short version of the rebrand

Acorns, the micro-investing company known for rounding up spare change, bought GoHenry to expand into family finance. In the US, GoHenry accounts were migrated to Acorns Early, which is now sold on its own Acorns Early Lite plan or bundled free inside the Acorns Gold subscription. In the UK, GoHenry still operates under its own name. So if you are a US parent, GoHenry as a separate product is gone. If you are in the UK, GoHenry is still GoHenry for now.

What actually changed

• The name and card. GoHenry-branded debit cards were replaced by Acorns Early cards. Existing customers were migrated.
• The pricing model. GoHenry charged a flat monthly fee per child (around $4.99/month). Acorns Early now costs $8/month on the standalone Acorns Early Lite plan (up to 4 kids), or it comes free with Acorns Gold at $12/month, which adds investing and retirement accounts.
• The plans. You can still buy just the kids card on the standalone Lite plan, or get it free as part of the broader Acorns Gold suite.
• The chores and allowance tools. The chore-to-allowance automation that GoHenry was known for carried over into Acorns Early, including paid tasks and automatic allowance transfers.

Is Acorns Early worth it in 2026?

The honest answer depends on whether you want the rest of the Acorns ecosystem. At $12/month, the Gold plan is good value if you are already going to use Acorns for your own investing and want kids cards as a bonus. If all you want is a debit card and a chore tracker for your child, the standalone Lite plan is $8/month, about $96 a year, for features you can get for free elsewhere.

That is the core tension. The number one objection parents raise about these apps is cost, and it is a fair one. A kids allowance card is not a complicated product. The teaching value comes from the conversations you have, not from the subscription.

Free alternatives worth comparing

Before committing to a paid plan, look at what free apps offer. Modak gives kids a free Visa debit card, chore assignment, and gamified rewards with no monthly fee. Greenlight and Acorns Early cannot recommend free competitors because they are selling subscriptions. We can, because we are not selling a card.

Free options come with trade-offs. They often monetize through interchange fees or optional add-ons, and customer support can be thinner than a paid service. But for a 7-year-old learning to count change against a digital balance, free is hard to argue with.

You may not need a card at all

For younger kids, a physical card can get in the way of the actual lesson. A child who hands over a $5 bill and gets change feels the money leave their hands. That tactile understanding is the foundation. Many parents start with a simple allowance system and a jar before they ever introduce a card.

If you want to set a fair allowance amount first, our allowance calculator uses the common dollar-per-year-of-age guideline and adjusts for your budget. To tie allowance to real chores, a printable chore chart does the same job as the in-app task feature without a subscription. And when your child wants to spend it all immediately, the wants vs needs sorter turns the decision into a teaching moment.

Age-by-age: what money skill to focus on

• Ages 5 to 7: Counting coins and bills, understanding that money is finite, waiting for something you want. Cash works better than cards here.
• Ages 8 to 10: Saving toward a goal, splitting money into save and spend, earning through chores. A chore chart and a savings jar cover this.
• Ages 11 to 13: Budgeting a fixed amount, comparing prices, tracking spending. This is where a debit card and app start to earn their keep. Try our budget planner to practice.
• Ages 14 and up: Larger sums, gift and birthday money, the basics of how saving grows over time. Use the birthday money calculator to show how a gift could grow if part of it is saved.

What to do next

If you were a GoHenry customer, your account is now Acorns Early and you are likely on the Lite or Gold plan. Check what you are paying and decide whether the bundled investing features justify the cost. If you only ever used the kids card, a free app like Modak or a no-cost allowance system will do the same job. The card is a tool. The habit you build with your child is the thing that actually lasts.

Turn allowance into real money lessons

Penny Time turns allowance into playful Quests where kids make real money decisions and see how each one turns out. Parents stay in charge of every cash-out. Free for the whole family.

No credit card. No ads. No strings.